Between all the stuffiness and pressed blazers of years past, I never believed that an art fair could actually be fun — nay, really fun — until yesterday night, when I checked out the inaugural edition of the Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair (BFAPF) in Gowanus. Concurrent with the International Fine Print Dealers Association’s annual fair at the Park Avenue Armory, BFAPF runs March 27 to 30 at Powerhouse Arts, placing emphasis on the close-knit printmaking and publishing community above anything else.
Frank Rose of Hecho a Mano in Santa Fe, a contemporary print-oriented gallery working primarily with artists in New Mexico and Mexico, highlighted that immigration policy has weighed heavy on its community.
“One of our artists, Juana Estrada Hernández, is a DACA (deferred action for childhood arrivals) recipient, and that program is under threat,” Rose told me. “She came here at seven and was able to qualify for this program, and she’s living and teaching and making work in the States, but could easily have her status revoked.”
Hernández’s featured work at the Hecho a Mano booth touches on her experience using motifs of barbed wire and a view across the Rio Grande. Other standouts include Edith Chavez’s woodcut corn prints and Rhiannon Sky Tafoya’s screenprinted gradient weavings.